CHART: The Most Amazing Thing About TV Is How Much We Still Watch

Despite the rise of online video, game consoles, iPads,
smartphones, and Netflix, Americans still watch an alarming
amount of good, old-fashioned television.

According to
Nielsen data from Q1 2011, the average American over 2 years
old watches almost 159 hours of TV per month, or more than 5
hours per day. It's even about 20 minutes per month higher than
it was a year ago, despite significant gains in online and mobile
video viewing during the last year.

As TV viewing shifts toward more streaming, traditional TV
watching stands to decline. Nielsen even sees that the heaviest
streamers already under-index for traditional TV viewing. More
information on that trend — and video viewing habits by
demographic — is available in
Nielsen's Cross-Platform report.